Is it me, or has this been a year of fantastic novels? Right off the top of my head I can think of Night Circus, Before I Go to Sleep, A Visit from the Goon Squad, Sarah Thornhill, Room, and The Tiger’s Wife. There were so many wonderful stories, I’m sure I’ve had my best reading year in a long while. I deplore the arbitrary nature of lists, so I won’t get into that here (though if anyone wants to stick my book on one, I’m not going to pull a Jonathan Franzen), but I’ll also say I was pointed to a ton of vintage reads, either by recommendation, happy accident, by way of research (one book leads to another leads to another and so on), or simply scouring used bookstores or op shops.